Episode 1: Cure!

It is not necessary to introduce Igor Fedorovich, more famous as Sapper [“Demolition Engineer”] to those who have any concern to the left opposition. He became famous all over the country in February 2003 after his individual protest action against transport price increase which had sounded louder than any public event - it was a bomb explosion at the Raushskaya quay parapet, half a kilometer from the Kremlin. First, the bomb was destined at the Mosgortrans [Moscow Transport Agency] building. But Igor was betrayed. He was awaited for at Raushskaya quay. After more than two-hour negotiations in freezing temperatures during which Igor was clasping an explosive device keeping his finger on the button of immediate explosion - he put the bomb onto the parapet and surrendered.

April, 27, 2006, 23.30 p.m. A call from Igor’s number reaches my cell phone. He is at the former political prisoner Larisa Romanova’s flat, and policemen came there. They force the door. Larisa with her six-year-old daughter, Anna Petrenko, Eugeny Semenov and Igor Fedorovich stay in the flat. They lock all the key-locks. The policemen try to break the iron door but don’t succeed. The light goes out, the besieged flash a torch.

In May 2003 Igor Fedorovich was found insane. The judicial proceedings took place in September and the court sentenced him to compulsory medical treatment to the psychiatric hospital No.5 in Chekhov district of Moscow region. Until his recovery. The judgement came in autumn 2005, after two long years. On November, 3, 2005 Igor was released.

April, 28, 2006, 00.00 a.m. It takes me not more than half an hour to pass through yards on foot. I am standing near a stall at the opposite side of Borisovsky passage. 8 policemen in uniform are at the entrance. Nobody knows what is happening inside. The only reason one can imagine is the May Day. I go on foot to the next bus stop, pass two stops by an empty bus and watch the situation from the bus window. Then I pass two stops backward. The last bus leaves.

All the time Igor spent in the hospital he had been under strict control of the authorities, I can’t suppose if while releasing him they expected him to pipe down, to give up political activity, “extremism” and to begin the life of a satisfied commoner?

April, 28, 2006, 01.40 a.m. I go back, cross the street. The cell phone is in talk mode for the third hour on end. There are no policemen near the entrance. Did they leave? Or didn’t they? I pass around the house. A car is standing near the windows, two men are sitting inside. They look like drug-users, smoke someting, propably “grass”. I knock to the car and ask for a cigarette. They give it to me. I pass near the entrance. There are no cars to be suspected. The besieged are out of cigarettes, I buy them in a 24-hour stall. A cord goes down from the window, I pass the cigarettes by it. The men in the car let me pass without remark, they sit and smoke for half a night already.

Igor had been able to do much for half a year he was free. Even his very own were surprised by his energy. He was a permanent correspondent of the newspaper “For freedom”, he visited political prisoners in Ukraine, he took part in meetings and regional trips, he adjusted computers and wrote articles. One of his last articles before his arrest was devoted to Vladimir Arutyunyan - the man who had made an attempt to kill Bush and had been thereupon sentenced to life in prison. Perhaps it was this publication which attracted the law-enforcement authorities’ attention, particularly on the eve of G-8 summit in July 2006 and the “Backstop” operation the essence of which was to prevent the participation of “left extremists” in protest actions in Leningrad. That’s how the “Backstop” operation was beginning...

April, 28, 2006, 03.00 a.m. Everything is silent. I go into the entrance, raise up to the second floor, pass to the third floor by the ladder. There is no man. The peep-hole pulled out during the storm of the flat is hanging fibreless on the door. I knock at the door: “It’s me”. The door opens, I come in, we lock all the keylocks again. The kitchen is in twilight with a weak light of the torch. “What on Earth is going on? Sapper, haven’t you done anything?” He gives a shrug of his shoulders. “It is the eve of the May Day, a banzai attack in advance. Or generally...” Nobody can find any other explanation of the storm of the flat, except “generally”...

Igor is accused of shooting at the concierge’s cabin from a signal pistol at the eve of the New Year. The material damage is enormouse - 600 roubles for a broken glass (which is clearly overestimated - a year ago I payed 300 roubles for glazing a bigger glass in my flat). Unfortunately he have no statictics data how many glasses are broken in Moscow every day in generally and on the eve of the New Year in particular and which sanctions such a terrible crime entails, but according the author’s own nad her comrades’ experience it is a fine in the amount of the price of the glass and/or approximately three hours in a police department. But... Fedorovich as a dangerous special criminal was put under restrain of arrest. He is in Butyrka prison till now. The case on the Article 213 part 1 of the Criminal Code of RF “Hooliganism” was investigated by the Main Investigative Department of Moscow, the investigation lasted more than 4 months. By a strange conjuncture of circumstances the Nagatinsky court which was to examine this criminal case appeared to be closed for repairs and proceedings take place in the Moscow City Court (why not the Moscow Regional Court or the Supreme Court? No one would be surprised). The first hearing was appointed on September, 28. But it failed - the complainants (concierges) did not come to the court. On October, 11, in spite of their non-appearance two prescribed witnesses of prosecution were interrogation - both denied their previous testimonies and stated that Igor Fedorovich had not accompanied them at the entrance at Shipilovskaya street. I confirmed the same. The next hearing was appointed on October, 18.

April, 28, 2006, 03.20 a.m. Larisa Romanova comes outside from the entrance. While she goes downstairs two men run out from the entrance and run towards Kashirskoe highway. Larisa catches a car, we make an agreement to go invertedly, through Brateevo and the Lublino bridge. We go out from the entrance, first I, then Igor and Anna. Igor and I get into the car, and it starts moving...

Igor is not being brought to the court - he has been found insane again, the commission recommended compulsory treatment in a special type in-patient clinic for him - it means the hospital No.5 again. The hearing lasted less than an hour on October, 18. It was found out that the photo by which the concierge had identified Igor had been taken at school (now Igor is 25 years old). The summon of the dome doctor was demanded in order to explain why such severe type of medical treatment had been appointed for such a petty crime. The doctor appeared on October, 31. The concierges did not appear for the fourth time. The proceedings are delayed till November, 17.

April, 28, 2006, 03.40 a.m. The runout from the district Orekhovo-Borisovo is in front of us, the turn to Brateevo, “the runout to downtown” - there are not many of them at the dictrict, it is surrounded by Borisovo ponds from one side, by Tsaritsino ponds from the second, by the river from the third... Our driver brakes at the traffic light, the car behing us brakes near us shortly. I fail to notice where the second car (which I considered “drug-users’”) appears from, it occurs too quickly, people in civic clothes with guns pour out from automobiles. “Police, everybody out!” We were blocked just near the police department “Zyablikovo” and we are taken there after having given a going-over Igor just near the car.

Unexampled security measures in the court building are amazing although Igor Fedorovich himself is absent at the proceedings. Upward October, 18 all citizens who come to the proceedings are subjected to entire search, they go up in the elevator accompanied by tipstaffs who don’t leave them alone all the hearing long and see off to the exit in the same way.